Hardenbergia violacea is a flowering vine or subshrub native to Australia which belongs to the pea family, Fabaceae. Flowers are typical of the pea family and range in color from white to violet to pink. Foliage is usually dark green and leathery. Hardenbergia can be found in production throughout Australia and the United States. The present invention relates to a new and distinct perennial variety of Hardenbergia violacea, which has been given the variety denomination of ‘HB2’. Its market class is PLT/226. ‘HB2’ is intended for use in landscaping and as a decorative plant.
Parentage: The Hardenbergia violacea variety ‘HB2’ is the result of a selection process carried out at a commercial breeding facility in Clarendon, New South Wales, Australia from 2011 to 2012. Said selection process involved openly-pollinated seedlings of Hardenbergia violacea ‘Mini Haha’ (unpatented), the seed parent, and Hardenbergia violacea ‘HB1’ (unpatented), believed to be the pollen parent. In the spring of 2011, ‘Mini Haha’ and ‘HB1’ plants were grown in pairs, in 200 mm nursery pots, with one pot of each cultivar placed next to the other. Two such pairs were grown simultaneously with approximately 100 meters separating them. Said pairs were allowed to openly pollinate and the resulting seed was subsequently harvested from the ‘Mini Haha’ plants in early summer of that same year. Said seeds were then sown, with a small number of five seedlings germinating. Of the five seedlings, four expressed a phenotype that was the same or very similar to the seed parent plant. By contrast, the fifth seedling exhibited a denser, ball-shaped growth habit, a smaller leaf, and a different leaf shape. This seedling was isolated for further evaluation and confirmation of the stability of the initially observed characteristics. The final selection was made after flowering in 2012 and the new cultivar was given the denomination ‘HB2’.
Asexual Reproduction: ‘HB2’ was first propagated asexually by stem cuttings at the same commercial breeding facility in Clarendon, New South Wales, Australia in 2012 and has since gone through five successive cycles of vegetative propagation. The distinctive characteristics of the inventive ‘HB2’ variety are stable from generation to generation; plants of the variety produced by asexual reproduction maintain the distinguishing characteristics of the original plant.